Renzi Loses Constitutional Reform in Italy

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi resigned on December 4 after a failed referendum on which he staked his career. Renzi himself proposed the referendum on cutting the number of seats in the Italian senate from 300 to 100 and promised to resign if the populace voted against him.   

Shortly after the tally of votes revealed that approximately 60 percent of voters opposed Renzi’s proposal, the Prime Minister held a press conference to announce that he would submit his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella the following day. The referendum, Renzi argued throughout his months of promotion, would limit the size of the Italian bureaucracy and secure the senate majority his Democratic party needs in order to pass their desired reforms. Those opposed to the measure claimed that this move would be unconstitutional.

Many journalists argue that what started as a minor constitutional reform transformed into a vote on the Prime Minister himself, with populist, anti-establishment groups campaigning for Renzi’s removal. Renzi’s resignation cannot help but call to mind British Prime Minister David Cameron’s resignation after a different failed national referendum on the Brexit. Luigi Di Maio, the leader of Italy’s anti-establishment Five Star Movement, told Italian newspaper il Fatto Quotidiano that the the “victory isn’t only for the Five Star Movement, but for all of Italy.”

Similarly, far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen tweeted her congratulations to Matteo Salvini, leader of the Italian anti-immigration Northern League, who also took to Twitter to celebrate Renzi’s defeat and the rise of populism in Europe, saying “Viva Putin” and “Viva Le Pen.” This rise of populist leaders in Europe has caused many scholars to predict a new wave of conservatism in Europe.

It is now unclear how soon Renzi will step down as prime minister and who will take his place.